Suck Squeeze Bang Blow

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Do you ever get one of those days where it seems you're going 100 mph even though you're stone cold sober?
I had a day like that today.
Lemme tell you all about it.

First, I finished a Honda tank in a very bright green. It's a copy of a damaged tank so alas, no creativity but a nice result anyway, when you think I had to custom mix the color to match the existing one!

In between layers, while waiting for the paint to dry, I did some silver leafing. I started painting this sportster months ago to try some cobbwebbing techniques but due to a busy schedule, never got around to finishing it.

First I sprayed glue on the taped off parts like so:

Here you can see the glue after removing the tape, this is where the silver is gonna stick.

The glue has to dry for 3 hours so I picked up another project that had been lying around the workshop for months, my UFO. It started life as a small electric heater. When I found it, it looked suspiciously like a UFO to me. I built in some lights and the illusion was complete.

However, the light was too strong and the paint burned after it had been lit up for weeks.
So I decided to repaint it. First a metallic silver with some small green flakes.

Then some taping and some of that green from the Honda tank:

I wanted to try a new special effect paint: Crystal FX. You spray it on wet and when it dries it forms chrystals, check it out:

Next I misted some black over that.

Scrubbing off the black reveals the chrystals:

Next I airbrushed a glowing green fade along the edges of the tape.

After pulling the tape:

Now I have to figure out what to do around those shapes, cause they look kinda out of place on the silver. Perhaps some dark outline or somping.
The Chrustal FX effect is super, though!

Now, back to the silver leafing. First some inspiration from this great sticker in my workshop. What's that you say, honey? Rub this oil all over your body? Sure baby!

Concentrate! Silver leafing is tricky business, the stuff is so thin, just breathing too hard blows it away.

Brushing off the excess leaf...

Nice!

After clearcoating all this stuff I went back home and a package was waiting. Vintage faceshields! Awesome!

Finally, I found this great Custom Van for sale right here in the Netherlands at Perry's Rodshop! Someone snap it up! Looks like a great van!